All Over the Place

I have been all over the place in the sewing room this month because there are so many projects I want to work on that I just can't get focused. I keep taking things out of the closet and putting them back, knowing full well I should work on just one or two projects at a time. Not necessarily a bad problem to have, but not as much is getting done as I'd like! 

I did get the Winter Garden top finished by the end of January. I had planned to set the blocks 4 x 5; but as I was getting ready to start the bottom row, it dawned on me that it would be too long to hang on the wall, so I left it at 4 x 4. It still needs to get quilted. I do love this series.

I thought quite a while about what, if anything, I wanted to do for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I've made two rainbow quilts, and making the same block every month again this year didn't appeal. And I especially don't want to make string blocks. Chantal had a better idea in her first post in January , which was to choose a quilt each month, maybe one already in progress, and tag it with the color of the month and work on that. 

Last year in January, I had a similar plan, which was to start with a new quilt every month using the color of the month. I got so frustrated sorting through tons of scraps to find the colors I wanted that I abandoned that idea by February. I spent the rest of the year sorting scraps into bins, mostly by color. I wrote a post about that process here. I have one very large carton to finish going through, but I've sorted enough to have scraps at hand to work with. 

The RSC color of the month for January was green. I didn't have a green project in the works yet, so I started making these Tilted Nine Patch blocks by Missouri Star Quilt Co from a tutorial on their YouTube channel. The blocks finish at 10 inches, and I did get 10 blocks finished by the end of the month. I plan to set the blocks 5 x 6, so there is more work to be done, whenever. 

I'm also using up bunches of muslin scraps for the backgrounds, so win-win. There are some different shades of the muslin, which doesn't bother me, it's a scrap quilt.

The blocks may not be done yet, but green scraps got used. This large storage bag was stuffed when I started making blocks, and I've emptied more than half the bag. Some of the scraps got sorted or cut into squares and strips and put away; the rest were used in the blocks. Yay!

While I was rummaging around in the greens, I came across this unusual print. I've have gotten scraps from a variety of places over the years, and I missed this one. I think it's ugly in an appealing way, lol, so I intend to chop it up and use it in one of Bonnie Hunter's scrap quilts I'm working on. 

Red is the color for February, so I dug out my Talkin' Turkey blocks, a two-color quilt from Bonnie Hunter's 'String Fling' book. It's been in progress for years; and near as I can tell, I had already made all the units to build these blocks, just have to put them together. I need 30 blocks for the quilt, and I have 20 blocks done.

I think I have most of the border units finished too. What I still need to make are these strip units that also go in the border, and that is what I'll be doing with red scraps the rest of this month. 

For today, I am working on some QOV blocks, two sets of five. My local quilt shop became an official QOV chapter 9 or 10 months ago, and I became aware of it and started participating in December, I think. This is one of two blocks I am working on for February.

The shop is using Eleanor Burns' book, Victory Quilts, and making two blocks a month. The selection of blocks in Eleanor's book all finish at 12", and they're not difficult to make, so a sampler would go together pretty quickly. Last month I made two sets of these blocks.

A Finish and OMG Done

We headed south last weekend to see Mini (what her mama has been calling my little granddaughter, as in Mini Me from an old Austin Powers movie, lol) and also to finish the puff quilt ... and it is finished, whew! I swear it was harder getting the backing on than anything else in the quilt. I cut it smaller than the top, because it, well, puffs; so I was afraid the backing would stick out around the edges.  In cutting it smaller, I wound up having to create another pleat in the puffs around the edges to ease in the extra fullness. Never again!!

Today should have been a paperwork day, but it's turned into a sew day, which is way more fun. Just checked off my One Monthly Goal, which was to finish the top of my In Honor Of (credits here). Yay, I like it so much!

This has been sitting around for a couple years at least. Fulfilling a goal set by me that doesn't necessarily have to be an entire quilt every month is so doable. I think this will work out just fine as long as I don't get too ambitious.

It also happens to be UFO Challenge #9 on my chapter list, so now I need to get it quilted!







Update: to see what others have finished for the month of March, click here.

Next up, quilt the Ombre Herringbone, which is waiting on the frame. And...

... another Yankee Puzzle I started in our chapter workshop a week and a half ago. Haven't got the first one quilted yet, but I'll get there. Still working on sewing the blocks. All of my fish MUST be swimming in the same direction, so I am trying to keep the black away from the border strip so there will be enough contrast. It's getting complicated, lol.

My quilt chapter is also doing a round robin this year, which they've called the Pizza Box Challenge. Guess why. I'm not a designer--I'm a need-a-recipe-give-me-a-pattern-any-day girl; so I'm asking myself why I signed up. That said, I finished round 1, and I'm happy with it. I kept it simple, no need to make myself nuts. The reveal isn't until June, so I can't show you a thing!

This is the center block I made for my challenge. I love scrappy, so I ran with it and included bunches of fall fabrics in my box. Of course it'll be interesting to see what comes home.

Another February Finish

First and foremost, I apologize if someone has posted a comment to my blog and I haven't responded. Blogger is still not forwarding comments to my email address. I have tried to fix it several times without any luck. I shall keep trying.

B-Ribboned, from a kit by Carla Klop of Kits by Carla, is finally quilted, bound, labeled, and ready for presentation. Done. The Maine state coordinator for Quilts of Valor had a booth at our chapter quilt show in October last year, and she gave me the kit to make, along with several more panels. A few of our chapter members took panels to work on also, so I'll have a few more quilts to pass on to Donna.

I love kits, and this one was nice because it included fabric for the backing and binding as well. I have to say that the ribbon border was a bit of a chore but well worth the effort. I quilted it with a pantograph called Patriot. It's the one I use most often for my Quilts of Valor, mostly because I haven't yet found another that I like.

This is another QOV I've been working on for awhile, and I'm anxious to get this one finished up too. It's called In Honor Of, from a pattern I found in the Jan 2013 issue of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting by Diane Tomlinson. They run a pattern for a QOV in every issue, which is one of the reasons I continue to subscribe to the magazine.

This quilt is made with Stonehenge fabrics by Linda Ludovico. I like these fabrics and this pattern so much that I bought enough to make two, one to donate and one to keep.

Recently I found a dinosaur panel at Marden's, and I was surprised to see it's also made by Stonehenge. Last week I found some of the companion fabrics from the same collection at Cotton Cupboard in Bangor, enough to make a small lap quilt for my granddaughter. She's into dinosaurs these days, so I want to hurry up and get this made before she goes out of her dinosaur phase, lol.

I guess most quilters probably have plenty of UFOs, and I have dozens. I am a sucker for an inviting new project whenever it comes along, which means whatever is current is most likely abandoned. Several years back I found the One Project a Month program and signed up. In the right sidebar is a link to that website, and my list of monthly finishes follows. For me, it hasn't been entirely successful, even though I did manage to finish 12 quilts last year; but it's still motivational enough for me to keep at it.

This past week I discovered a website called Elm Street Quilts. They have a similar program in place called One Monthly Goal, and they have sponsors and monthly drawings for prizes. What's not to love? So I signed up, and I'll give that a try too. More motivation. There is a new icon in my sidebar that will take you to the page with information about the challenge.

In keeping with the rules of the challenge, my One Monthly Goal for March is to finish the top of In Honor Of. If I persevere, I might even get it finished. You can visit the Goals folks have submitted for March here. If you're interested, you can sign up too, but hurry if you plan to do it--the deadline for sign up for the month of March is the 7th.

Lol, I need all the motivation I can get--some of us need it more than others. My quilt chapter is also doing a UFO Challenge this membership year. For those who wanted to participate, we were to choose 10 projects to complete before our second meeting in June. Those who finish all 10 would have their names submitted for a prize drawing. So far I've finished one, so I doubt very much if I'll pull it off. But even if I only get 2 or 3 done, that's still more than I might have got done otherwise. My list of 10 UFOs for the challenge has also been added to the sidebar.

It's A New Year...

... and migosh, it's already February. Time moves so quickly these days. Last year was an extraordinarily busy year for me. Staying busy with the family accounts for much of that time, but I also worked two quilt shows during the summer and fall, and then the holidays. There simply are not enough hours in the day.

And soapmaking. I spend more time reading about soap than I do about quilting. I took a couple of adult ed classes in January and February last year and learned how to make cold process soap. I've been hooked ever since. I make it on a small scale for family and friends, and I really like experimenting with all the different ingredients you can add to soap. I've added body butters and lotions to my repertoire, and my extremely dry skin is so much better for it this winter.

This past Christmas, my son indicated he wanted to learn; so I bought him all the tools and some reference material; and he's as hooked as I am. Now my daughter-in-law has gotten in on the act, and my younger son told me yesterday he wants to learn too. I'm lovin' it.

This is a lovely batch of orange-scented soap with some marigold petals on top that I cut last week. I'm anxious to use it, and I wish I didn't have to wait for it to cure for four weeks. 

I managed to finish 12 quilts last year, some of which were in the works for quite a while. All of the ones featured in the last post, which was from May of last year, were completed. Nothing like commitment to display at a quilt show to motivate, and here are the others I finished last year.

Jungle Blooms was my first effort making a One Block Wonder quilt, from Maxine Rosenthal's book of the same name. I really enjoyed making this, and I absolutely love how it turned out. Can't wait to make another one. The cutting and piecing are not difficult, and moving the blocks around to create a design was absorbing.

I quilted it with something that looked like a palm frond, which I thought appropriate for the theme.

I was very happy indeed to finish Twisted Ribbons. I don't know how many times I blogged about it, and it dragged on and on. Decided it was time to knuckle down and get it finished, and it went in our chapter show in October.

Farm Girl Sampler from Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet was a fun quilt to make, but it definitely wasn't a quick quilt. All the blocks were made with rotary cutting instructions, no templates or applique; so some of them took a bit of time to make. I've already purchased Lori's newest book of sampler blocks, Vintage Christmas, and looking forward to getting started on that one.

Lori designed additional blocks that were not in the original quilt, so I subbed out the house for the cow block. There's a barn and a milking pail in the quilt, so I thought, why not?

I don't knit much anymore, but I was happy to include the sheep anyway.

I was also happy to see Lori included a spool block. The gingham plaid is cute enough to make a whole quilt with. Lori's book had quite a few other projects in it besides the sampler quilt, and blocks were all included in two sizes. There is so much you could do with these blocks.

This year will be another year with multiple charity quilts, and some golden oldies for a chapter UFO Challenge. This Quilt of Valor is from a kit that the state rep gave me to work on last October. The ribbon border was a pain but worth the effort. I've been trying to make time to get it loaded for quilting, but that hasn't happened yet... I've finished a few other tops that are also in the RTQ (ready to quilt) pile, and you'll see those eventually; but the Quilt of Valor is the next one I need to push to finish.

2016--It's A Wrap

The last time I posted was two months ago. I guess that's par for the course. I'd like to try and do better this year. The last several months were busy ones, with our chapter quilt show, fall clean up, winterizing the house and cars, a death in hubby's family and a trip to Maryland for the funeral, hubby's knee surgery, weekends with Baby Girl, the holidays and all that entails, and as much quilting and knitting as I could fit in. I finished 18 quilts in 2016, which is a record for me, and in a variety of sizes, from queen to to miniature. 12 of those were UFOs, and it makes me exceedingly happy to see them finished. 8 were charitable donations for Quilts of Valor and NICU. This year I want to continue to focus on quilts for donation and the UFOs, and I'd like to make some quilts for family as well.

A little over half of the quilts I finished last year were linked in the sidebar. What follows never made it on the blog.

A couple years back, these Turning 20 quilts were going to be one twin-sized; but I changed my mind and threw it in the closet. Last summer I dug it back out and made two crib quilts out of the blocks. One was donated, the other went to my granddaughter. Her room is pink and gray, and the quilt adds a lovely touch of color.

Credit where credit is due: Turning 20 Book 9 by Tricia Cribbs

Charity Baby #3 is called Strip Mine, from a Quilt University class by Patti Anderson. I've seen the pattern all over the place, so it's not unique to her; but her method of construction might be. A good scrap buster and easy enough to sew.

True Blue is a 24" square quilt, from a kit I bought one summer at quilt show. Both the pattern and the fabrics are from Kim Diehl.

Charity Baby #5, Jumping for Joy, was from an article in Quiltmaker Nov/Dec 2016 by Paula Stoddard. That issue arrived at the right time for a quick and easy retreat quilt. I finished the top at our October retreat in Jackman and got it quilted a week or so after.

I was in the mood to make a Christmas quilt this year, so I dug this UFO out of the closet and finished it. I appliqued the snowflakes in the blue blocks with my embroidery machine, then machine quilted it with a snowflake design. I consider it a winter quilt, not really a Christmas quilt. We have lots of gray days in Maine, and I like this quilt because it's cheery.

Warm Wynter Wishes was designed by a friend of mine when she was designing and selling patterns, but this one was never published. After a couple of years of pestering, she finally let me make it. She is now working on a sequel that she plans to share.

The last quilt I finished for 2016 was QOV #3, Stars Over America. I think I used every star fabric I owned, then quilted the whole thing with stars. The stars were paper pieced.

My goal for 2016 was six quilts of valor, which obviously was too ambitious. This year I'm aiming for four.

Credit where credit is due: pattern called Steve's Star, by Steve Bennett (Judy's husband), from Judy Martin's Piece and Play book.

One last project--a selection of small bags for Daughter-in-Law for Christmas. The cloth bags are from Lazy Girl Designs--Sweetpea Pod, Becca, and Fobio. The black vinyl mesh bags are from the pattern Zip It, Screen Play II. My DIL carries a smallish purse, so the large Becca works well for her. Not me, lol, I carry everything under the sun in my purse, so I need a big leather bag.


I will be busy the rest of the week trying to catch up on others' 2016 year end posts. Happy New Year to all.

A New Obsession

I'm on the last quarter of the Stars Over America quilt. Still have four more red star halves to sew for the corner border blocks; but since there's only one border, I anticipate having this top finished by bedtime tonight.

Paper piecing 88 star halves got tedious at times, so occasionally I switched out the project with another from a class I bought on Craftsy. I discovered Craftsy sometime late last year and have come to love it. It started with knitting, then expanded to quilting, a few cooking classes, and a few gardening classes. They have some other kinds of classes too, and I wish they'd have one on refinishing furniture.

A few weeks ago while I was surfing the internet, I came across Joan Hawley's blog--she owns Lazy Girl Designs. She wrote about a new technique she developed using half of a zipper, with a different colored pull, to sew into a bag. My interest was piqued, so I bought her three patterns that feature the technique. Before I could get started, she started offering a class on Craftsy, so I signed up. A worthwhile investment, because she offers some tips that are not in the printed patterns, and the videos make it a whole lot easier to understand what to do. Too bad I had already bought the patterns because all three are included in the class materials, which makes it a great value.

Using only half of a zipper makes it easy to install, then you can use the other half for another project. You can also see I've added different colored pulls to each of the three pieces I made. In fact, the key fob actually has two different pulls on it. I could have added three or even six. How fun is that?

The other thing I really like about this technique is that using one half of a zipper allows the bag to sit wide open when it's unzipped, which makes it easier to see and reach into the bag. This is Joan's Sweetpea Pod pattern. I've been keeping one of my charger cords in it, but a friend made one from vinyl mesh (which I thought was brilliant) and keeps her little red binding clips inside. The larger bag is Becca, and the key fob is Fobio. The split ring on the Fobio is small enough to put through a zipper pull, so you can put one on the Sweetpea too.

You can also purchase a bag of extra zipper pulls so you have colors to choose from. I have always detested putting in a zipper, but Joan made a believer out of me. I had so much fun in this class, and now it's spawned a new obsession--stashing zippers and zipper pulls.

Quilt of Valor #3

Spring and summer were busy months for us, and I simply haven't had the time to update the blog, I'm sorry to say. Now that I'm back, I'm restarting in the moment and will catch up here and there.

One of my goals this year was to complete six Quilts of Valor. I'm still hoping to reach that goal, but I may not, and that's fine. I plan to continue making them, so I'll keep going. The third one should have been completed by the end of June, and I'm still working on it. It's a pattern called Steve's Star from one of Judy Martin's books, Piece 'n Play Quilts. I think I used every star fabric I own in the quilt, lol, so I'm calling it Stars Over America. I drafted a paper piecing pattern for the stars in EQ, and it does take time to put these together, more time than I realized. The top half is all sewn together now, but I still have most of the star units for the bottom half to put together.

QOV #2 , finished at the end of April, is a duplicate of one I made several Christmases ago for a Marine veteran whose family was the recipient of gifts from my husband's team at work. At the time, I liked the quilt well enough to purchase fabric for two quilts, and this is the second one. Quick to put together, only the star blocks in the border are pieced--the center is a panel. Love this quilt. It is a design by Nancy Rink, and I named it American Valor. It might have been a free pattern from the Marcus Bros. website. Sorry for the corner of my sewing table in the corner of the photo--not much I can do about it.

I found a new pantograph for the quilting, one called Patriot from Jodi Beamish. With a variegated red, white and blue thread, I like the way it looks.

The most momentous event of the summer was the birth of my first grandchild, a granddaughter. After she was born, I stayed with my son and daughter-in-law for a week and a half, helping with the baby and things around the house. Loved all the grammie time!

She is two months old now and just beginning to smile at faces. Her mom and dad let her come up this weekend for a slumber party, and she was all tuckered out by the time we took her home on Sunday. Can't wait to see her again!

February Finishes

I have a friend I email back and forth with nearly every day, even though she just lives down the street and round the corner. She's busy, I'm busy, so we email. I went to an operetta with her Sunday, and she complained that she'd been doing most of the writing lately. She said she won't hear from me for several days, then I write her a five-page email.

I've been like that since I was a kid, hating to sit down and write, procrastinating, then spending an hour writing a really long letter. My husband deployed often during our 30+ years of married life, and it drove him crazy too. Now here I am, doing the same thing with blogging. I guess it's feast or famine with me, and it's a habit I'd sure like to break. I am not, however, going to write a lengthy blog post today. I'll spread it out over a few days. Maybe, lol.

I have been off in ten different directions in the sewing room over the last month or so and having a ball. I did finish three quilts in the month of February. Two were ufo's, and that's always a good feeling.

The first Quilt of Valor for the year has been finished, and I started the next one right on time on March 1. Credit where credit is due: "Tree Farm Throw" from a Thimbleberries booklet called Triple Treat. It is perhaps just shy of the required size for a QOV, but I think it will do. I named it "Let Freedom Ring".

The Candystripes quilt is finished too, and I am SO glad to have this one out of my hair. The top of the next charity baby quilt, with the 36-patch blocks, is finished and waiting to be quilted.

Lastly, my Lazy Sunday is finished at long last. Other than the fact that I wished I had mixed up my background fabrics, I like it a lot. I quilted it with a feather pantograph--I love feathers. Another project I am very happy to have done and on a bed. Yay! February was a good month!

Credit where credit is due: designed by Bonnie Hunter, published in Quiltmaker magazine.

I finished a couple of knitting projects too. I'm not a hat person but decided I might be a headband person. Sometimes my ears get numb when the winter wind is blowing, so I knitted this up in just a day with some chunky Malabrigo I'd forgotten about in one of my bins.

I also finished this Honey Bee sweater from a pattern on Ravelry. I knit it with Berroco Remix, a favorite yarn of mine. The knitting and seaming has been done since November, just needed to set in one sleeve. Occasionally procrastination does pay off; not so in this case, I could have been wearing it all winter. We just had 4 or 5 inches of snow yesterday though, so still some winter left up here.

Progress with the kitchen redo is glacier-like. The new drywall on the ceiling is up, but there is nothing of interest to see yet. We're considering laying cork flooring, which we have no experience with. Glue-down seems to be the way to go; multiple bad reviews for the click together tiles, especially if it gets wet.